Two things I notice about writing these days, especially writing aimed at the internet savvy younger generation (Guardian Guide). One, spelling must be creative so that search engines can find your ‘Phrustration’ or ‘Sonix Masterpeace’ in amongst the dross of real words, and two, style is so much more important than content that content, if perceivable at all, appears as a diffusion seen through layers of frosted glass. Record reviewers assuming you already know the material in this instant age feel free to simply associate it with their favourite vegetable and what they had for breakfast. ‘Left Field’ is no longer an inventive move down the sideline; it’s gone behind the stands into the stadium car park and is fast approaching the old deli two blocks away. I can’t say personally I remember the advent of language but I imagine it began with idiosyncratic grunts. Over time we humans made agreements as to what our sounds meant. We devised ways to write them down, agreed spellings and syntax. It was a long process. Yet as we approach the old deli at the end of time we’re falling back into that old idiosyncrasy. A typical review might read- “This is like pebbles weeping. Like those Sundays when all the dogs bark in unison and the city’s late for lunch. When carrots are inspired by, well other carrots.” Add personalised spelling, “Sundaze excepshonal karots inspirify otha karots”, reduce for texting, “Sundaz krts insp o krts” and pretty soon we’ll be faced with “sxt t grfb a 4 actv8 ll snozrs.”
Have we become terminally lazy, incurably self involved or simply lost the need to communicate? Or are we suffering from Qwertyfication? If we assume all the people with broadband already know everything and the future has already happened since we last looked then I guess there’s no need to communicate. Grunt.
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